Bob Odenkirk has teased “a lot of insanity” is coming with his alter-ego Gene, going into the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul.
At the beginning of each season, we’re given black and white glimpses into Saul’s world, post-Walter White, living under a new identity as Gene Takovic, a manager (with a rather terrible mustache for a disguise), at a Cinnabon store somewhere in Omaha.
In the opening moments of Season Four, Gene is unnerved by a taxi driver giving him suspect glances in a rearview mirror. In Season Five, this taxi driver, Jeff – a former resident from Albuquerque – recognizes Gene as Saul Goodman. This is made worse by Jeff’s unnerving insistence that Gene says his infamous catchphrase, “Better Call Saul”.
So, this is a pretty big conundrum. Gene calls Ed Galbraith (the late Robert Forster), the owner of a vacuum cleaner store who was responsible for making Walter and Saul disappear under new identities. While intending to acquire Ed’s services again, Gene then decides to fix the problem himself.
“You’re going to see a lot of insanity, as the wheels come off the cart.” Odenkirk told The Wrap. He later adds: “I’d like to think he learned something about how to manage yourself and your inspirations, your drives, in the course of all these adventures, including Breaking Bad,’”
“We’ll see what Gene, how he behaves as a more experienced person having lost everything — at least one time. I wonder what Gene will do to protect himself, or to strike back at the world.”
Meanwhile as Jimmy McGill, an aspiring criminal lawyer, Saul made big leaps in Season Five, defending the charmingly calculating Lalo Salamanca and later becoming a cartel bagman.
Odenkirk describes Jimmy as being “one very bad move away” from completing his transformation into Saul Goodman, Albuquerque’s go-to criminal lawyer in Breaking Bad, which as we know, leads him down a very dark path with Walter White.
Citing that “something big still has to happen to trip him over into, I think, full Saul mode,” Odenkirk intriguingly adds that it likely “has a lot to do with Kim Wexler.”
Better Call Saul Season Six is due to begin production next month.
